Stephen Hawking is desperate to go into spacewith me... even if it kills him
Richard Branson is still going to space. He’s adamant about that, even though his Virgin Galactic project has been plagued by delays and terrible accidents that have killed four people, and he originally promised that commercial spaceflight would begin in 2009.
‘It’s certainly going to happen. We’ve just unveiled a beautiful spaceship,’ says the billionaire adventurer with the wide professional smile that has launched a thousand trains, planes, automobiles and other projects – including the latest, a rebirth of his much-loved old station Virgin Radio. But space is what all of us – including his famous, rich and powerful friends – want to experience, he says. ‘Stephen Hawking is desperate to go to space. We’re going to try every which way we can to get it to work. I think the pressure may be just slightly too much for him but we’ll see. He has almost said to us, “I don’t mind being killed, I just want to get to space.” But killing Stephen Hawking may not be a good thing for us to do!’
That’s no joke but he says it with a thin smile. Branson will be extraordinarily frank in an interview that reveals truths about his unusual and highly private marriage to Joan, Lady Branson, his view on Donald Trump’s candidacy, how his dyslexia drove him to success and his future.
At 65, he’s still got the look of a Seventies rock star in dark jeans, open-necked shirt and black biker jacket. His long hair is almost completely white but his beard is still dark on a leathery, lined face. Branson is a little hunched and, strangely, does not make eye contact once during the conversation, looking away the whole time to the young and beautiful staff working away silently at the far corner of the room.
Losing Hawking – or any other passenger – would be the end for a project that has already cost several lives. Three people were killed by an explosion during early testing in 2007. Then in October 2014, co-pilot Michael Alsbury, 39, died when the rocket plane VSS Enterprise came apart just after leaving the mothership that takes it to high altitude. Were there any thoughts of abandoning the whole project then?
‘There were for a few hours. If it had turned out to be our fault – a technical fault that was really a tough one to overcome – then we would have thought twice [about going on]. It turned out to be pilot error. The technology was working fine. Anyway, none of our astronauts wanted us to stop. None of the 600 people who work as engineers wanted us to stop, and I don’t think the public wanted us to stop. So I’m very glad we have pushed on.’
Yes, but will they ever launch? And if so, when? ‘I am absolutely sworn not to give a date because I made the mistake of doing that in the past. I don’t want to get it wrong again. So, it’s going to happen when our brave test pilots have tested and tested it and we feel secure about putting myself and my family and other people up there.’
Virgin Galactic has taken £50m in deposits from customers who want to be the first in space, with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and Justin Bieber among them. Has anybody asked for their money back since the disaster?
‘In the first few days we had about 20 people ask for their money back and about 20 people sign up. The prime minister of Iceland’s wife rang me up the day after the accident and said, “I want to sign to go to space.’’ Anna Sigurlaug Pálsdóttir is one of Iceland’s wealthiest women. ‘A lot of them did it as a goodwill gesture. It was very touching at the time and made us want to push forward.’
Phone calls and emails are still coming in, he insists. ‘The exciting thing about what we’re doing is that seven out of 10 people, if they could afford it and thought it was safe, would love to go to space. Who in this room would say yes?’
He is asking the one young man and three women at the other end of a long conference table in the new Virgin Radio studios, who are part of his travelling entourage. They would say yes, wouldn’t they? He laughs and admits: ‘My wife wouldn’t!’
That’s a surprise. He doesn’t often talk about Joan, but today we’re getting a rare glimpse into how their unorthodox marriage works. The couple just celebrated 40 years together, although they spend a lot of time apart. Branson is often travelling, attending to an empire worth £3.4bn. ‘ Thank you for making life extraordinary,’ he wrote in an open letter to Joan, 70, on his blog in February. ‘Your eyes are still as magic as they were 40 years ago!’
They met at his recording studio, The Manor, in 1976, when she came with her husband, Ronnie, who was a keyboard player and producer. Ironically, in his autobiography, Branson claims the couple had ‘drifted apart’ because the husband was away so much.
‘The moment I saw her I was absolutely smitten,’ he says now. ‘I chased her. I was known as Tag-Along because there was a friend who knew her and I would ring up and ask if I could tag along to dinner when she was going out with Joan. I slowly wore her down.’
They moved in together a year later, and two years after that he bought Necker Island in the Caribbean to impress her. They married there in 1989, at their young daughter’s suggestion. How have they managed to stay together for so long? ‘We’ve been very lucky. It’s been romantic, we’ve been fortunate in having delightful kids, which helps bind a relationship, and wonderful friends. We trust each other but we don’t smother each other.’
They both live on Necker when he’s there but are rarely seen in public together otherwise. ‘I’m travelling at least four or five months a year on business or charity trips and she very rarely comes with me. When we get back together again it’s great.’
Branson has been seen as sexy, dashing and a great flirt over the years, although there has been no evidence of any infidelity. He spends a lot of time in the company of beautiful people, either staff or his many famous friends, so Joan really does have to trust him, doesn’t she? ‘Yeah. We… I would not want to ever cause her any pain. And it’s just not worth it. So we’ve got… we’re…’ He stops himself, changes tack and says: ‘We’ve been lucky.’
Six years ago he talked about her attitude to the death-defying balloon trips and Atlantic crossings he used to go in for. ‘She’s a pragmatic Glaswegian. She simply pulls out a piece of paper and gets me to write, “The island belongs to Joan if I don’t come back.”’
Is he still planning to take his children, Holly, 34, and Sam, 30, on the first flight into space? ‘Definitely myself. My daughter has just had twins, my son has a baby, so we’ll wait and see where the baby cycle is going at the time.’
Would he rather die in space or in his bed? ‘I would rather not die younger than otherwise expected, but I have spent my lifetime sticking my neck out – whether personally, with balloons and boats, or with business – and I have just found that saying yes is an awful lot more fun than saying no.
‘If my balloon had not come back [during his 1987 transatlantic balloon flight he had to be rescued] I would have kicked myself and my wife would not have turned up at my funeral. But anyway, we did survive.’
He has no thoughts of retiring. ‘I enjoy life too much. I can still achieve a lot and I don’t want to waste the position I find myself in.’
So the kids aren’t being groomed to take over the empire? ‘The businesses are run by a fantastic team. The kids are doing their own thing. If I was foolish enough to go up on another balloon trip and the balloon popped then they could become the front, the face of the company. Virgin has benefited from having a face. In fact, a younger face wouldn’t be a bad idea!’
‘The moment I saw Joan I was absolutely smitten. I chased her. We’ ve been very lucky. We trust each other but we don’ t sm other each other’
For the moment, though, it’s his tanned, craggy face that matters. Today we’re in south London at the relaunch of Virgin Radio as a digital station. Branson looks bored during aquestion-and-answer session with sponsors and advertisers – until someone asks whether dyslexia ever got in the way of his career, at which point his face lights up.
‘Quite the reverse. Dyslexia resulted in me quitting school at 15 because I was hopeless. I looked at the blackboard and didn’t under- stand. Algebra, what the f *** is that? French, nobody speaks it, why are we wasting our time? I failed my elementary maths at school but I’ve spent the past two weeks going over all the spaceship figures. When I understand something I completely grasp it. My dyslexia has helped with Virgin because I know I need everything to be explained to me simply.’
His friends include Bill and Hillary Clinton, so what does he make of the prospect of Donald Trump taking her on in the race to become President?
‘I think if he is the Republican candidate, then Hillary Clinton will be President of America,’ he says. ‘I’ve spent a lot of time in America and most of the Republicans I’ve met have said that if Donald Trump becomes the nominee they will vote for Hillary. I think it will be the biggest defeat the Republicans have ever suffered. I think sense will prevail.’
He plans to take the Strive Challenge with his children in September. They will start at the base of the Matterhorn, cycle the length of Italy, swim to Sicily, cycle to the foothills of Mount Etna and
‘I failed elementary maths… but I’ ve just been going overall the spaceship figures’
run to the summit. ‘Every year as a family we try to come up with a challenge we can all do together. My kids have inherited that side of me, rather than my wife’s side.’
Joan will stay on Necker, by the sound of it. Maybe that’s the secret of the Branson marriage: relaxing in a tropical paradise while your restless husband runs up mountains, makes even more millions and tries to convince the world that this time – soon, honestly – he really is going into space.